It was grand! The ride was supposed to take 7 hours, but ended up being a 10.5 hour trip. It was great though! Kaust teachers, university students, staff, and university professors all went, so it was quite the mixer. I met so many new people (always the best part of this wild ride I'm on) who I star gazed with when our bus got stuck in the desert sand and we waited an hour for taxis to come get us. We saw lots of old, old tombs, palaces, trains, and spots of sacrifice. I climbed a few mini mountains and laid in a 6,000 year old grave...spooky thing to do, but I was after all missing the Halloween bash back on campus to see all this history.
I'm still amazed that I get to live in a country most people will never see because of the restrictions on entering...its a wild, wild ride I'm on for sure. I stood at the foot of the king's tomb. Headless eagles are placed at the places of sacrifice and on the tops of the doorways entering tombs and palaces....they thought of the eagle as a guardian. I still don't know why the eagles are headless. I was too busy climbing mountains and laying in graves to ask our tour guide.
The hotel was fine and the food good. The company was great. The ride was long. The sights were just jaw dropping and the pictures don't really do them justice, but you can get a feel for the communal aspect of living by some of the shots and if you look close you can see the awe in my eyes.
On the way back, we got pulled over by the police. We were supposed to leave the hotel at 5pm, but left at 3pm and thus, didn't have the proper paperwork to be driving at that time. Our guide had to return to the hotel (lucky we had just gotten on the road 45 minutes prior) and fix the paperwork. The police then, gave us an escort the entire way back to Kaust, after yelling for all the women to cover up. We stopped for food at the halfway point (just outside Medina) and were hassled by the police to get back on the bus. Some men eating at a table spit at some of the people from the bus when they walked by....nice folk!
Anyway- imagine the rest and check out the pics. I'm off to India in 2 short weeks, then home for Christmas, then to Berlin and Bangkok in March....see you on the flipside.
Look for the pics here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79449&id=1632204269&l=a41459bb23
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79446&id=1632204269&l=d5229789e2http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79438&id=1632204269&l=94c5afac7e
Jeddah Jenn
Jeddah Jenn
